by David Philpott, chairman of the Kent branch of the Institute of Directors

When Hollywood studio boss Louis B. Mayer first dreamt up the idea of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, he could never have imagined that more than eight decades on, it would have evolved into the world's most famous industry-specific award-giving organisation and indeed become the template for everything else that has followed.

The Oscars may have been the first, but now - in auditoriums and theatres across the world - envelopes are opened with frightening regularity, as some celebrity host inevitably proclaims those immortal words, "and the winner is..."

Here in Blighty, we have not been immune to this need to honour those who have entertained us (and often become extremely rich for the privilege of doing so). There are the BAFTAs, the BRITs, the British Comedy Awards - the list it seems is endless. And not only is it in the entertainment industry that this is now the norm. Think BBC Sporting Personality of the Year. Think FIFA World Player of the Year.

Whereas many of the awards I have alluded to are made to people already in the limelight of our celebrity-obsessed culture, some do go to the unsung heroes behind the scenes.

Take my good friend Ben Burtt for instance. He has picked up four Academy Awards for sound effects editing in E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Star Wars Episode IV and Raiders of the Lost Ark as well as being nominated for six others.

If you passed him in the street, you would not know who he was. It amuses me to think that his wife Peggy uses his four little Oscar statuettes as door stops. Anyway, enough of this name dropping

Movies, music and these days comedy, are all very glamorous, but whereas Lord Sugar and Sir Richard Branson may have done an awful lot to make enterprise a bit sexier, we still have a long way to go in honouring our entrepreneurs. And that is why I am such a KEiBA fan. Now - in the third year - the Kent Excellence in Business Awards are rightly recognising our very own business movers and shakers.

Over the next few weeks, along with my fellow judges, I will be poring over nominations, scoring them and then visiting companies and individuals, so that on June 30 in the Leas Cliff Hall in Folkestone, we can properly honour the unsung heroes who make up Kent & Medway Plc.

Talking of excellence in business reminds me of another Kentish triumph. I was privileged recently to attend a Kent Ambassadors briefing at the new Turner Contemporary art gallery in Margate.

Built at a cost of £17.4 million, it is expected to bring a new kind of visitor to Thanet. And because of that, I expect that one day, the gallery will be up for some arts and tourism awards - an outcome I think would be eminently excellent.